Have I said how much I love having grandkids nearby?

I made this post several days ago, but had trouble with the video clip, so now finally maybe I can get this up tonight. I have a new camera and lots of pictures to share from recent events, so hopefully I'll get some new posts up soon.

Sarah getting her certificate of preschool completion....on to Kindergarten!

One thing that is very precious about our grandchildren living close by, is getting to attend their events and watching those milestones as they happen. Precious, indeed!

A day or two after their little graduation ceremony, Sarah said "I miss my old school!" "I miss Mrs. Briese!" Sarah has already gone to the kindergarten roundup, and has met her new teacher, Mrs. Schuler and is feeling like a hundred days is a long time to wait for school to begin again.

Her class worked hard to learn songs and learn how to line up and take their place and stage and memorize their songs. Good work class!

This Sunday we got to attend Abby's first piano recital. We felt fortunate that Abby could take lessons from dear Mrs. Rowe. Joellyn also took lessons from Doris when she was in high school. Doris is in her 80's and could have every reason to quit teaching, but she wants to do it to make lessons available to those who really want them. I believe she instilled in Abby a love of piano playing, so that is a really good foundation for continuing her music education.

Because she only has a few students, each one got to play several pieces. Here is a little clip of Abby and Joellyn playing a duet:

A few more special wedding pictures....

I Love my guys!

My three dear children

My three at Brad's wedding....six years ago already!

Ash and his best man, Brad

Brad and his best man, Ash

are we ready?

Every wedding has to have its getting ready for the big moment set of pictures. We weren't around when the bride prepared herself, but we enjoyed some special family moments at our motel before we all left for the photo session. Here I am pretending to arrange Ash's tie. He didn't need any help. He already looked perfectly put together. His pre wedding jitters were only made known by his frequent checking of the time. We didn't want to be late for the photo session! I wasn't even giving any Motherly advice, just admiring my handsome eldest son.

We were right next door to Brad and Amy and just two doors down from Tom and Jo, so we enjoyed the beautiful day with open doors and wandering back and forth between the rooms. Here Rog is gesturing to Brad about something.

Roger was assigned to hold Eva while Abby and Sarah were getting their hair combed. This is about the only time Eva was seen with her fancy head band with the flowers that Joellyn made to match their adorable chiffon ruffled skirts. Eva didn't much care for the extra thing on her head.

Sarah stood patiently while I fastened in her hair bow, while her Mom snapped the photo.

Abby is old enough to mostly get ready by herself. Her she is doing a last minute inspection. She then went out to look over the rail while she waited to get in the "limo" and be taken to the photo session in the park.

grandkids and cell phones

Eva looks here for all the world like she is texting on my cell phone ....

We were waiting in the grass at the park while pictures for the wedding were being taken. We didn't have a lot to keep the little ones entertained, so Roger and I let them play with our cell phones. It's interesting to see the babies little human natures coming into play while they interact. Eva made it known quite definitely that she preferred my blue phone to Roger's black phone. It was O.K. if Ollie had the black one, but don't try to take the blue one! Also funny to me, is how the babies learn by watching others do things. They were born into an age where almost everyone has a cell phone. It was so cute awhile back to see Ollie pop open a phone and put it to his hear and say "Hi".

Doesn't it look like Ollie and Eva are sitting here texting one another?

It reminded me of this Zits comic strip in a recent Sunday Funny paper:

My Mother's Day

This was taken Sunday morning after Ash and Annie's wedding. As you know, Sunday was Mother's Day, so a picture of the Moms seemed appropriate. If you look a little closer, maybe you will notice we look a little weary and beat up. If you look really close, you will see that Wendy has a shiner and a bruise on her chin. What you can't see is that I was limping around on a sprained ankle. Those of you who are Mother's of the bride and groom would know, a lot of work goes into getting ready for the festivities, and we Moms are usually handy and willing helpers. As Mother of the bride, I'm sure Wendy had way more to do than I, but I had several projects ahead of time too, not the least of which was putting on the rehearsal dinner. It was all worth it though, and in case you haven't seen pictures I'll point you to Joellyn's blog post, and you will see the whole thing turned out to be a lovely affair. My pictures and posts are just going to be the "rest of the story" or little happenings that I witnessed along side of the big event.

O.K. this isn't a very lovely picture, but it happened at the wedding...to me.

Just when I thought I could relax and enjoy the festivities, I needed to run out to our vehicle and grab some punch ingredients. I was hurrying down some steps, and I fell and twisted my ankle. Luckily, Rob, one of the ushers offered to go help me get the stuff and he was there to break my fall somewhat. I'm blaming the fall on the fact that I was wearing high heeled sandals....not super high, but higher than I am used to wearing. I likely won't be wearing them again. I'm miffed that I wasted the money on shoes I'll only wear once, but mostly annoyed at the inconvenience of having to gimp around for a week or so. I was embarrassed at the attention I got because of everyones concern, at a time when I wanted all the attention to be focused on the bride and groom. Unfortunately, later after the festivities were over, Wendy also suffered a fall and her face took the brunt of it.

On a happier note:

Sunday morning, our family met for breakfast before going to watch Ash and Annie open their presents. It was a special time for me, surrounded by all my family. I sat next to Sarah. She was happy with the little pitcher of milk for her cereal that she could pour all by herself.

Here's pictures from both ends of the table of all of us gathered for breakfast.

This is one picture I had really hoped for, an up to date picture of all our family. It was so special to be all together this weekend!

Ash and Annie

This is the slide show I put together and showed at Ash and Annie's rehearsal dinner the night before their wedding. I added their wedding picture to it before sharing it here.

This picture slideshow personalized with Smilebox

Lovin' the Pioneer Woman

Funny thing how the Pioneer Woman had become a household name, as well known as Betty Crocker and and Sarah Palin. What??? Who is Betty Crocker???? Ha! I'm not a real steady follower of Ree Drummonds blog and I've had her cookbook for quite awhile and only made a couple of the recipes, but I needed an idea for a really good main dish for a very important occasion coming up soon, and so I l looked to her cookbook for inspiration. I've never thought of Lasagna as an easy recipe, but somehow her detailed pictures and instructions just made it seem very do-able....even doing it times four!

One thing that she instructed, I had never done before, but I decided it was a really nifty idea. That is, to lay the cooked noodles out on aluminum foil after cooking them in boiling water until al dente. Previously, I've drained them in a colander and then tried to pull them apart and uncurl them when putting them in the baking dish...not always successfully. This time they were all laying flat and easy to layer in the pan.

The other reason I'm just lovin' the pioneer lady, is because I got this book about the lovable Charlie in the mail today! I pre- ordered it from Amazon along with her cookbook, which I got for my daughter for her birthday. Only fair, as she gave me a copy of the cookbook as a gift, and didn't even get one for herself.

It is a good little story about the adorable ranch dog. Ree even tells how to write your own children's book here, on her blog, in case you have a secret desire to write a book. First, all you have to do is have a really popular blog, then write a cookbook, then a novel, then you can write about your very lovable dog, and the book will be sold out before it even hits the book stores. Hmmm, I could do that.....NOT! I appreciate it a lot, though that she's sharing all her secrets.

What is your favorite Pioneer Woman recipe and/or cooking tip?